Washing systems for dispensing soap and/or lotion provide convenience for the users of public and semi-public facilities. In addition to convenience, these systems allow individual users to dispense an appropriate amount of liquid to address their needs, thereby reducing waste and further eliminating sanitary concerns that might be introduced with publicly shared supplies, such as, for example, bar soap.
A typical washing system includes a container for the soap and a manually operated valve which may be an off-on valve or a pump valve. Ordinarily the container is mounted directly on the valve structure. A variety of such dispensers are in common use today.
When there are multiple wash basins, a dispenser may be provided with every wash basin. Soap and/or lotion is provided to the dispensers in a variety of manners. For instance, in some systems, each individual dispenser has its own supply container. Dispensing systems utilizing an independent reservoir per dispenser, however, have increased unit costs and maintenance costs.
In another type of washing system, a plurality of the dispensers are served from a single container. In one such system, sometimes referred to as a gravity soap system, a liquid reservoir is mounted on the wall above a plurality of basins, with a dispenser positioned at each basin and fed by a line from the reservoir. The head pressure of the liquid in the container above the dispensers causes fluid to flow by gravity into each of the dispensers to fill the valve cavity. Liquid is dispensed by actuating the open-shut valve to empty the valve cavity into the operator's hand. When the valve is closed, the cavity is refilled by gravity flow from the reservoir. While this system works adequately when the reservoir is positioned directly above the dispensers, it is not satisfactory when the reservoir is positioned at a distance from the dispenser or below the dispenser or at the same level as the dispenser, as liquid will not flow from the reservoir to the dispenser. Also, of course, it requires that the reservoir be significantly above the dispensers in order to produce the necessary head pressure.
In another configuration, sometimes referred to as an under-the-counter system, the reservoir is positioned directly under the counter. In these systems the supply container is coupled to a single line or multiple lines that feed the individual pump type dispensers mounted above the counter. With this type of construction, the reservoir is filled by removing one of the dispensers and pouring the liquid through the dispenser housing into the reservoir below the counter. After the refill operation, each of the pump dispensers must be primed by repeatedly actuating the pump mechanism. Typically about 75 to 110 strokes are required per dispenser to adequately prime the dispenser to start pumping.
Existing multiple valve, single reservoir systems have several disadvantages. The valves are high cost, designed to withstand a high hydraulic head. The piping system is made of costly metallic pipes either inside the wall, requiring early plumbing, or exposed non-esthetically pleasing plumbing. The soap used has to be a water thin vegetable soap, to run in the pipes and meet the valve design criteria. Such soap, once popular, is now outdated and currently replaced with lotion type soap, which is much more difficult to draw through the pipes. In addition, these systems empty the supply line when the reservoir is empty. Thus, the lines must be reprimed. If the lines are long, more effort is required to reprime them.
A problem encountered by all of the above mentioned current feed systems is that they fail to provide the dispensing liquid in an ongoing manner; namely, they fail to provide a continuous and uninterrupted supply of dispensing liquid for the users. Indeed, in situations wherein the dispensers are refilled after they are empty, an interim period exists where some users will not be provided with the dispensing liquid. Of course, the supply reservoir can be replenished prior to becoming entirely empty, but this results in increased maintenance costs and in instances where the supply reservoirs are sealed containers, the remaining dispensing liquid is wasted.
Although current systems attempt to provide an ample supply of dispensing liquid, none of the current systems address the issue of providing an economical and continuous, uninterrupted supply of dispensing liquid. Further, the current systems have increased maintenance costs and inconvenience to the end users. As such, a need exists in the industry for a feed system that is capable of providing a relatively uninterrupted supply of dispensing liquid to the users. Further, a need exists for a system that does not require repriming of the dispensers if the supply is interrupted once the supply of dispensing liquid is replaced. A need further exists for a feed system that is capable of dispensing the lotion type soaps that are common today over long distances.